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David Allan Weitz, the member of National Academy of Sciences, the member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the tenured professor at Harvard University, gave an academic report entitled Cell Stiffness and Cell Volume in the Luojia Forum which was held in the library of cherry garden at Wuhan University on 18 December. The report was chaired by Professor Sun Qingping, the scholar of “1000 Talents Plan”.


The research, application and investment in cell technology continue to heat up globally at present and there are researchers who have found that stem cell differentiation can be affected by adjusting the stiffness of the cell microenvironment (the network of proteins and polymers that surround and connect cells to the tissue). Professor Weitz mainly includes the diffusion behavior and viscous behavior of cells in the microenvironment, the rate of cell stiffness and cell volume, and the state equation of cells. The research of various mechanical behaviors of cells could enhance the development of biomechanics, and provide strong support for cell technology development and application.

 

Professor David A. Weitz is a renowned professor of School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, and an expert in the field of soft and wet functional materials, colloidal particle system, biophysical and biological materials and microfluidic research. Professor David A. Weitz received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1978 and worked as the research associate at Exxon Research and Engineering Co. in the United States from 1978 to 1995. He was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 1999. He has been serving the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard since 1999. He has also served as the Director of Materials Science and Engineering Center at Harvard since 2001. He has been an adjunct professor of Systems Biology at Harvard University since 2006. So far, Professor David A. Weitz has published more than 400 high-level academic journal papers, including more than 30 papers published in Science, Nature, Nature Materials. He had applied for 56 invention patents and was invited to give over 500 academic reports around the world.

 

After the report, Professor Weitz came to the School of Civil Engineering, held a symposium with young teachers and graduate students to guide their work on the strength, toughness, and structural functionality of nanomaterials, smart materials, biomimetic materials enthusiastically. Finally, Professor Weitz encouraged young researchers to boldly practice their own ideas, try to explore a new area in which no predecessors involved, and probe in the sciences with great innovation.

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